Let’s play a game of “Would you rather?” Would you rather your customers have to rely on the radio ad spot to understand a boat show or create a custom publication that walks them through a boat-show journey?

Would you answer change if I told you that the custom publication could go a long way toward earning customers’ trust, while increasing the odds their journey ends with them doing business with YOU? A lot of dealers engage their customers only AFTER they arrive at the show. By adding value to their path to purchase beforehand, you gain a competitive advantage before the show even starts.

Industry innovator and MRAA member Len’s Cove Marina of Ontario, Canada, understands that many consumers have questions about not only attending a boat show, but how to maximize their time and energy while attending one.

“Ultimate Guide to North American Boat Shows”

To do this, Len’s Cove Marina just released for 2025 “The Boat Show Buyer’s Guide: Ultimate Guide to North American Boat Shows” as part of its Len’s Cove Lessons in Boating content initiative to educate its customers about boating. A section of the intro copy reads: “This isn’t a sales pitch. We created this free resource because we believe everyone deserves to enjoy the thrill of boating.”

After advancing through the free 28-page digital publication they hosted through HubSpot, I firmly believe that statement because this resource answers a lot of frequently asked questions. And this statement, “Think of it as your compass on this journey,” reinforces their belief.

The Len’s Cove marketing team has built an impressive resource that addresses many topics and touches on boat show experiences from their customers’ perspectives. The table of contents addresses many questions. They begin with how the guide can help a boat buyer/shopper and what they need to know to find success. From there, they dive deeper into the dealers who attend the show and what separates them from the crowd, before jumping into boat buying.

And they don’t stop there. The Len’s Cove team shares common missteps made by buyers and helps them understand why a boat show is a prime place to make a purchase and why the boating dream is worth it. They conclude with a call to action, sharing their YouTube channel and Len’s Cove Lessons in Boating series, as well as a button and link to the Ottawa Boat and Outdoors Show and a reduced admission coupon.

Len’s Cove included “pro tips” to provide further guidance and more successful results and a couple “did you know?” sections. The common sense and fun advise, combined with their industry expertise, help the reader gain confidence with their boat show adventure(s) and decision-making.

To access the Len’s Cove Marina Boat Show Guide, click here. (NOTE: There is a form to fill out to access the free resource).

How to Get Started?
Your team has the expertise, as boating enthusiasts living the daily boating life, and insights to share with your customers. You can collect a few of your blogs (or write new ones) that meet your customers where they are and address their needs and answer their questions.

If you don’t have writers on staff, you can always borrow boat show articles from Discover Boating that help your customers understand what a boat show is and isn’t, sharing tips and best practices to make their visit enjoyable and memorable. This goes for photography within the guide, too. Len’s Cove used some of its own images, but also shared source attributions (Example: Photo Courtesy of Atlanta Boat Show) for photos they used from Discover Boating, the Toronto International Boat Show and other sources.

To advance your team’s expertise, use artificial intelligence to your advantage. You can certainly use it to create an outline for your own article or guide, depending how deep you want to go. If a full-blown guide or boat show resource is too much for your team, an alternative step for you might be to create a blog. You can then email your customers and leads your blog that offers tips to enjoy a boat show and that answers common questions. Should you desire to jump in with both feet, like Len’s Cove Marina, you can combine your knowledge and advice with free industry articles and AI-driven content to produce a helpful guide.

Ultimately, this marketing and sales effort is to create an opportunity for your team to serve as a guide in your customer’s journey. You’re simply taking a proactive step in answering their questions before your boat show, so when they do arrive they have a better understanding of how things work and how they can maximize their time to focus on having fun and shopping for a boat that best fits their needs. At the same time, because you made the effort to help them, you’ve also helped your team engage customers in a way that makes them feel appreciated and cared for, regardless if they end of buying from you or not. Through education and building industry connections like these, you can become a champion of boating and a resource for many boating enthusiasts.

Steps to Build a Guide

1. Define the Purpose of the Guide

• Provide an educational resource for boating enthusiasts and your customers.

2. Plan the Content

• Address most common boat show questions from consumers and supply tips and fun info.

3. Gather Information and Resources

• Engage your team, or vendor, to collect the information and artwork (photos, vidoes) necessary to include in the digital guide.

4. Draft the Content

• Produce the content: Write the content yourself, hire a freelancer or use AI to assist you.

5. Review and Edit

• Proof the copy for brevity, errors and your brand’s voice. Remember, storytelling and giving AI-content your voice and a human touch are important, too.

6. Design the Guide

• Assign or hire someone to layout and format the guide, keeping it reader friendly.

7. Finalize the Content

• This is time for your final proofing of the entire contents, from cover to back page. Ensure your table of contents and page numbers align, all the fonts match and formatting is precise, while also editing the guide one last time.

8. Prepare for Distribution

• Determine where and when you will distribute the guide, ideally before your boat show. You will need to generate short-form titles and copy for your newsletter and social accounts.

9. Share the Guide

• Provide the link to the guide’s sign-up form. This ensures you capture vital information like name, email, phone number and also generate leads for your dealership.

10. Follow-Up and Update

• Create a follow-up plan for those who download the guide. This could be anything from a simple automated “thank-you” follow-up email to a stronger lead engagement effort from your sales team to those consumers who match up with your region.

Want to know who Len’s Cove Marina’s small two-person team pulled off this project? Read our follow-up blog where we dig in to things like design, time commitments and more.